As the city of San Jose plans a vigil for the nine victims of a mass shooting, troubling new details have emerged about the moments leading up to their deaths.
The violence, which has been described as a workplace dispute, left the city reeling as the community mourned the victims and demanded answers about what happened.
Authorities said investigators are still working to determine whether the shooter targeted the victims, who ranged in age from 29 to 63. They were found in two separate buildings at the Valley Transit Authority on Wednesday.
But one witness told KGO-TV that the shooter appeared to select his victims.
“He had a specific agenda,” said Kirk Bertolet, who has worked for the VTA for 12 years and was at the scene of the shooting Wednesday. “He was targeting certain people, he walked by other people. He let other people live as he gunned down other people.”
In an interview with the “Today” show on Thursday morning, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said the gunman, Samuel Cassidy, 57, was “very deliberate, very fast” during the shooting rampage.
Cassidy had been employed at the VTA for at least eight years.
He was found with two semi-automatic handguns and 11 loaded magazines, Smith said.
Calls about the shooting came in at 6:34 a.m. Wednesday. Three minutes later, a fire was reported at Cassidy’s home on Angmar Court, eight miles away.
Officials are operating under the assumption that he acted alone and “set some kind of device to go off at a certain time, probably to coincide with his shooting,” Smith said, although she noted that thinking may change as the investigation continues.
Deputy Russell Davis with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday that investigators were working on getting a search warrant for Cassidy’s house, which was heavily damaged by the fire.
“We’re going to use everything we can and grab all the evidence we can,” he said.
Bomb-sniffing dogs at the rail yard also located materials for bombs in what is presumed to be Cassidy’s locker, including detonator cords and “the precursors to an explosive,” according to Smith.
Late Wednesday evening, Santa Clara County’s office of the medical examiner-coroner identified eight of the victims after notifying next of kin.
They are Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Taptejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza, 29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, 35; Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63; and Lars Kepler Lane, 63.
Hours later, officials announced the death Wednesday night of a ninth victim, Alex Ward Fritch, 49, who had been taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in critical condition.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said on Twitter that a vigil for the victims will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall Plaza.
“This is a moment for us to come together and grieve,” he said.
Neighbors knew Cassidy as a “very strange, very quiet” guy in his working-class neighborhood, said Ramon Crescini, 64, a retired general contractor who lives several doors down.
Cassidy was divorced more than a decade ago. His ex-wife told the Mercury News that he had a mercurial temper and often complained that co-workers and family members had easier lives than he did.
In April 2009, Cassidy was granted a restraining order he sought against a 45-year-old former girlfriend, whom the Los Angeles Times is not naming as she is the victim of an alleged sexual assault.
In an interview with KRON 4 early Thursday, Smith said Cassidy took his own life when deputies confronted him. Officials on Wednesday said they did not exchange gunfire with him.
“He’s a coward. He took a cowardly act,” Smith said.
Speaking at a news briefing Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said there is a “sameness and a numbness to these incidents” after meeting with family members of the victims. He asked when the violence will stop.
“What the hell’s going on in the United States of America?” Newsom asked. “What the hell’s wrong with us? … When are we going to put down our arms, literally and figuratively?”
Speaking to the “Today” show, Smith expressed similar disbelief.
“What in the world could possibly prompt someone to take this kind of action, we don’t know at this point,” she said.
